Bhutan, Land of the Buddha

[Lonely Planet]

On the two-day journey from a town near Trashigang to Thimpu, which she had seen only on television, Karma felt numb with fear. She barely noticed Bhutan's pastoral beauty as the road wound through mist-clad passes, descending into idyllic valleys peppered by patchworks of rice paddy fields.

Her eyes fill up with tears at the sight of hundreds of fluttering prayer flags - it reminds her of a ritual for which her mother had saved every ngultrum (Bhutanese currency) she earned. "We trekked the whole day to get to a height from where the wind would flap these flags and release the prayers into the air, so that they would touch us, and reach the deities. " Buddhist Monasteries India

Her mother pleaded with her not to leave. Karma had just scraped through her tenth standard, and most jobs require a twelth-grade certificate. But she respectfully refused to heed the advice. Karma, the eldest of six siblings, was tired of watching her mother go hungry. She was determined to find work in Thimpu so that the younger ones could study.

Arriving in Thimpu with just two changes of her well-worn and slightly soiled Kira, Karma was intimidated by her first sight of the city. "Girls in fancy clothes were going to the same interviews. I thought I would never get a job, but I diligently practised English. Then I saw an ad for a big India hotels hiring graduates of tenth standard. " When she arrived for the interview, she was told there were six spots and six hundred applicants!

Karma was shocked when she got the job. "I couldn't believe it, but the day the King had walked on foot to our village, he talked about young people working hard for their families and country and I was inspired to try for a job. He ensured that our little cluster of ten houses got electricity. That's how we could spin cloth and save for my india trips. "

WIRED-UP WELFARE STATE
No other country in the world has been as persistent in connecting all its far-flung rural communities to an electricity grid as Bhutan. Despite the astronomical cost of connecting each mountain home (around $2, 000) to the network, the King has decreed that every household in the country should have electricity by 2020. By the end of 2006 more than 75 per cent of homes had been wired up. Bhutan has managed to harness its hydroelectric power without having to build dams and reservoirs that would have damaged the environment or displaced farmers.

Since the fourth Dragon King (Druk Gyalpo), Jigme Singye Wangchuck coined the term Gross National Happiness in the 1970s, the concept is at the heart of shaping government policy. In a speech to parliament this month, the fifth and present King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, defended the government's Kidu (or welfare policy) on the basis that it restores happiness to the people. "For some, there may come moments when in spite of all their efforts, their problems become insurmountable. . . At such times, if we do not step in to help them find their way forward, they will despair and lose hope. This is something we must never tolerate in Bhutan. As King, it is my duty to ensure that our people will always have hope." make my trip

BUDDHA SHOWS THE WAY
In Paro, Sherab Jamtsho circles all of the several chortens he passed on the way to work clockwise. He turns off the road and up a mountain trail for twenty minutes, washing his hands at a prayer wheel mounted over a waterfall so that they turn with the force of the water. Then we walk down, turn onto an unmarked street and check into his workplace to work on a budget for roadworks planned for the next year.

"I always take the long route to work, " says Jamtsho. "For us the mountains and the water are sources of blessings and we use them to sustain our world. We don't like people climbing our mountains because we believe it is the abode of our deities. We are happy that the government limits tourist visas and when they do come, they must be guided so that they understand our values." india tour packages

Between 1983 and 1985, the country allowed mountaineering expeditions, but the people objected to the idea and the government no longer permits anyone to scale their snow-capped peaks. Modernisation is a deliberately slow process, and global assimilation is not a priority for Bhutan. The first set of traffic lights which was installed in Thimpu, had to be taken off within weeks after residents complained that it created confusion. A traffic policeman again resumed duty at the crossroads. Buddhist Tours

Plastic bags, cigarettes and advertisements of branded soft drinks are banned. Although the Bhutanese admit to watching Bollywood films, the government does not allow shooting in the valleys and mountains because the message in the glamourous flicks doesn't resonate with Buddhist ideals. About Lord Buddha

When the government decided to neuter or cull the dogs in Thimpu, the Buddhist community reminded the government that hurting animals went against Buddha teaching. The policy was abandoned.

In Trashiyangtse, where the rural population is eagerly awaiting electricity, some residents were worried about cables posing a threat to black-necked Cranes that winter in Bhutan. "These winter visitors are auspicious and we have to make sure we don't disturb their habitat, " says Yeshi Tshering, 34, adding, "but we really need to be connected to the electricity grid, so we were happy when the government suggested burying the electricity cables. "

GOING GREEN
After climbing uphill through the mountains surrounding Bumthang for three days, Kunley Dorjee sets up camp at an altitude of 4, 100 metres, filling a hot-water bottle from the kettle sitting on the campfire to slip into his sleeping bag. "When our King abdicated and announced that we would have democracy, we were worried. We love our King, and didn't want any democracy. Now the parties talk about equality of the people, about access to education. This is only a dream - as of now only the very bright or the very rich students can go to university. So I voted for equality. Then I thought this is what the King means by democracy. My vote decides. " Buddha Enlightenment

The next morning, as Kunley starts to descend to the valley below, he stops and says, "See the rhododendron? We are at 3, 700 metres now. They cannot survive any higher. Most of us know this, and it's because we believe our wellbeing is dependent on the flora and fauna and on the water bodies that sustain us. This is Gross National Happiness to me, seeing that we do not have to sacrifice our environment because we feel forced to join the rest of the world. Even applying for a permit to cut trees for construction is hard, and that is fine with us because we know that protects our forests. "

WOWING THE WORLD
Khenpa Tashi, author of Mindful Living in Bhutan, explains: "This concept was alive in the people's mind long before it was formally articulated by the King. The people of Bhutan respected the Himalayas, the great lakes and recognised their interdependence on each other. But the King saw that with opening up of Bhutan would follow questions. And so he coined the key to what is important to the people of Bhutan, and called it Gross National Happiness. Central to it is their Buddhist way of life and a spirit of volunteerism, looking out for each others' wellbeing and developing at a pace that does not crush our culture, traditions and environment. " Buddhist Gompas

While international observers talk about Bhutan as a country frozen in time, in the case of developing a measure to gauge the wellbeing of their people, Bhutan appears to have taken a visionary path. The leaders of the first world are now set to follow suit.

Prime minister David Cameron has just announced that Britain will be using an index to measure people's social and environmental wellbeing from next year. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy is also championing the use of indicators that look at people's wellbeing. Canada too is also studying the viability of a similar initiative. Buddhist Destinations

Kunley smiles at the news on the internet cafe screen: "Not bad for a small, landlocked, mostly rural country, that's what the Atlas says about us. We may be poor, but our leaders can teach the leaders of the first world how to care for the people of their nations, " he says with a wink. If France, Canada and Britain are serious about using contentment alongside economic indicators designed to gauge 'progress' among their populace, it wouldn't hurt to send delegations to Bhutan.